In the second month of the lunar calendar, the Nanyang is already very hot, but the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River in the southwest is unusually wet and cold. The subtropical high-pressure area on both sides of the Yangtze River is hot in summer and extremely wet and cold in winter. When spring comes, whether it is North China, Central Plains, Fujian or Lingnan, they have begun to warm, but the areas on both sides of the Yangtze River are still cold, although the temperature at this time is a little higher than that outside the Guan, but the wet and cold are particularly uncomfortable.

The cold wind was biting, and the river was turbulent, roaring and tumbling downstream. The river covered by night was pitch black, and it was impossible to see the movement of the river clearly.

In the jungle by the river, where you can't see your fingers, several pairs of eyes are vigilantly watching the river. It was the night of the Western Expeditionary Army, which was not closed on the monitoring river. Although the level of science and technology was backward in those years, and it was easy for boats to have accidents on the Yangtze River at night, and no one dared to sail at night in the Three Gorges at that time, in order to prevent Li Guoying's dog from jumping over the wall in a hurry, he still kept an eye on the river overnight to prevent Li Guoying from breaking through at night.

At the third watch, the river was gradually covered with dense fog, the temperature was getting lower and lower, and the visibility became worse and worse. In such climatic conditions, it can be said that no one dares to sail on the Yangtze River.

"Big brother, let's withdraw! With such a ghost weather, it's strange that Li Guoying dares to go! One of the soldiers suggested.

Chen Shuigen hit the soldier on the back of the head with a chestnut blow: "Withdraw? People like Li Guoying will take advantage of such weather to escape! He felt that others thought that the fog would not dare to sail, so he took advantage of the fog to sail! If everyone thinks like you, Li Guoying will definitely run away! ”

As the fifth watch approached, the fog on the river was getting thicker and thicker, and the visibility was already frighteningly low. Under such climatic conditions, if someone sails at night in the Three Gorges with strong currents and dense reefs, it is no different from looking for death. The Yangtze River here is not the Yangtze River downstream. The boat went down the river with such a fast current, as long as it casually touched a big reef, it was the end of the ship's destruction and death. But at this time, lights faintly appeared on the upstream river.

"As expected! Li Guoying's old thief really wants to take advantage of the fog to break through! Chen Shuigen was overjoyed and said, "Send a signal immediately, and let people intercept Li Guoying's old thief immediately!" Can't let the Tartars run away! ”

One of the nights does not pick up fireworks. After being lit, there was a "pop" in the air, and a colorful firework burst into the foggy air. Although the visibility was not high, the nearby Rebel lookout post still saw the fireworks signal, and then the Rebel lookout post also released a firework.

"Li Guoying is about to break through! Get ready to strike! Li Laiheng, Hao Shaoqi, Liu Tichun and others, who had not slept all night, heard the report of the soldiers, and immediately jumped up from the collapse, hurriedly put on their armor, put on their helmets, and took off their swords.

In the past few days, the rebels have been prepared. Although Li Guoying was reluctant to break through, waiting for the opportunity, Li Laiheng and others did not dare to slack off, and the rebels took turns on duty. After receiving the signal, the soldiers who stayed up all night to wait immediately picked up all kinds of weapons, rushed out of the barracks, and rushed towards the river. The soldiers in the barracks who had their turn to sleep were also woken up and hurriedly dressed up. Carrying all kinds of weapons, he ran to the river. Prepare to plunge into the fierce battle to intercept Li Guoying.

Besides, Li Guoying had actually made preparations for a breakthrough on a foggy night, and someone in the military and naval division was invited to know the situation on the river in this section well. As early as a few days ago, Li Guoying dispatched a group of death squads from fishermen to explore the Three Gorges at night, not only to find out the situation of the reef, but also to understand some of the underwater piles arranged by the rebels.

During this period. The cunning Li Guoying sent many elite soldiers disguised as rebels, attacked and killed the rebels on the way, and reconnoitred the situation along the river. Fortunately, the Western Expeditionary Army did not collect at night and saw through the tricks of the Qing army, which annihilated more than 300 elite scouts sent by Li Guoying. However, Li Guoying's people still ran back to part of it. With part of the intelligence of the Ming army's defense, he reported to Li Guoying.

Knowing that the rebels had been prepared, Li Guoying decided to break through on a foggy night. As for the reef that could be evaded from the past, the underwater piles arranged by the rebels were forcibly knocked away by rafts. If it can't be opened, let a person with good water use a rope to tie it to the raft and dive into the water to cut off the underwater stake.

It really didn't work, so Li Guoying decided to sacrifice a group of dead soldiers and must rush out. As long as they rushed through this section of Wushan, there would be a naval division of the Hubei Qing Army downstream to respond, and Li Guoying and they would be safe.

In order to get in touch with the Qing army in Hubei downstream, Li Guoying released a large number of carrier pigeons. Many pigeons were shot down by the archers of the rebels, and they became Li Laiheng's belly meal. The secret letter carried by the carrier pigeon was also intercepted by the rebels.

Li Guoying is a good defender, if the righteous army storms Chongqing, it will make the Qing army mourn and win, and Li Guoying will seize the opportunity to turn defeat into victory. However, under the guidance of Wang Jinzhong and others, they only cut off Li Guoying's grain route but did not attack, leaving more than 100,000 Qing troops trapped in Yucheng, which forced Li Guoying, who was good at defending but not good at attacking, to give up defense and forcibly break through, which hit Li Guoying's weakness.

However, Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao, who were promoted by Hong Chengchou, were good at attacking, which made Li Laiheng dare not slack off.

You must know how many big fish are in this net, Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan in the Qing court, Zheng Jiaolin, the governor of Sichuan, Zhao Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, the general of Dingxi, who was promoted by Xiaozhuang to deal with Aobai, the general of Dingxi, the governor of Sichuan, Tong Fengcai, the governor of Xi'an, Fu Kachan, the general of Xi'an, and Du Min, the deputy commander of the Qing army.

Li Guoying naturally knows the significance of this battle, if more than 100,000 elite Qing troops can break through, Li Guoying will still have a chance to make a comeback. If the breakthrough failed, the Qing court would no longer have the strength to enter Sichuan.

When he gave up Yucheng, Zhao Liangdong looked at the mountain city built by the mountains behind him and cried bitterly: "Lord Jingluo has worked hard to manage the southwest for nearly 20 years, so there is today's situation. But now that Lord Jinglu has been assassinated, the situation in Sichuan has also deteriorated to this point! It's really sad! How will the end be worthy of the spirit of the Lord in the sky? ”

Li Guoying sighed: "Have you seen which army went deep alone and didn't need food and grass? An army without grain and grass can actually obtain grain and grass on the spot, and it can still grow and grow! And every move is aimed at our fate! And we can't exterminate them! Just like the locals, they are familiar with the local forest terrain and can walk like a fly in the complex mountainous areas. They only have dry food on their bodies to live in the mountains for months! Such an army is simply incredible! ”

In fact, Li Guoying's defeat under the Western Expeditionary Army was not wronged at all, and the Western Expeditionary Army carefully built by Wang Xinyu was not only an elite modern army, but also an army armed with god-like theories. No one in this army is afraid of death, and even if the casualties exceed 80 percent, they will not be defeated. Every soldier is proud of his heroic death, they can endure hunger, they can fight in the worst conditions, they can climb mountains and mountains, and they can feed their stomachs with bark and grass roots. They are able to clean up the toasts that are not good for them, and win over the toasts and locals who support them. Quickly grow up behind enemy lines.

A spark can ignite a prairie fire, and such an army specially built for the southwest ethnic minority areas directly undermined the strategic plan formulated by Hong Chengchou for the southwest Tusi that year, and put Li Guoying in a desperate situation.

Li Guoying, whose grain route was cut off, was forced to abandon Yucheng, go down the river, and retreat to the Wushan area.

"There is an ambush for thieves!" Seeing the sudden fireworks signal, a Qing sergeant screamed.

"What the hell, such a big fog, the thieves are even prepared!" Wang Jinbao, who served as a pioneer, was shocked.

I want to live. can only break through the blockade of the rebels. Wang Jinbao pulled out the sword that Hong Chengchou personally rewarded him, and pointed at the dense fog in front of him: "Fellow comrades, the only way to break through the siege of thieves today is to fight to the death!" If you retreat, you will surely die! Fight hard, you can still live! Brethren go with General Ben! ”

The dense raft of the Qing army's pioneers lit the firewood on the raft, burning a raging fire, and the smoke and fog mixed together. Flowing down the smoky river, it rushed straight into the barricade raft formation of the rebels.

The rafts of the rebels were chained. Floating on the river, it was used to block the retreat of the Qing army. If Li Guoying wants to run, he can only break through the chain raft of the rebel army first, and then burn the raft with fire in order to break through the encirclement. Just when Wang Jinbao's Qing army shouted and rushed towards the raft formation of the righteous army. The sound of trebuchet firing sounded on the shore.

The timing of Li Guoying's breakthrough was indeed very favorable to the Qing army, and in this foggy weather, the long-range weapons in the hands of the Western Expeditionary Army could not play a role, and the few artillery pieces of the Righteous Army could not do anything. However, the seven-tip cannon, a trebuchet that fires crushed stones like a goddess scattering flowers, can still play a certain role in this foggy weather. The Qing army lit firewood on the raft. The firelight illuminated the river and provided the trebuchet with an approximate location.

The seven-pinned cannon didn't need to be very accurate, and the dense crushed stone could make up for the lack of accuracy.

More than 7,000 volunteer auxiliary soldiers pulled hundreds of trebuchets and smashed baskets of broken stones onto the river.

The overwhelming rubble was like a goddess scattering flowers, and a dense stone rainstorm was formed on the river surface, covering almost the entire river surface. Stones the size of goose eggs fell from the sky and hit the raft. The flesh and blood of the Qing soldiers who were hit by the stones flew sideways, screaming and falling into the river. The stone struck the burning firewood and oil, and the firewood flew sideways, knocking over the oil canister and burning the Qing soldiers on the raft to the point of screaming miserably.

Seeing his soldiers falling into the water one after another, Wang Jinbao, who was red-eyed, barked like a mad dog: "Kill!" Rush up to kill the thief! Otherwise, no one will want to leave alive today! ”

Riding on the raft on the river, the Qing soldiers had nowhere to run, so they could only endure the overwhelming rain of stones and desperately launch a desperate charge against the rebels. The dense rafts of the Qing army on the river surface, looming in the fog, with thick smoke and fire, rushed straight to the raft array of the righteous army. After the raft of the Qing army collided with the raft of the rebel army, a large number of Qing soldiers jumped down from the raft one after another, used wooden sticks to provoke firewood, and transferred it to the raft of the rebel army, broke the oil canister and smashed it.

The fire on the surface of the river was so bright that the heat dispersed some of the mist, but formed a thicker smoke.

The rafts used by the rebels to block the river had all caught fire, and in the fire, the rattans and ropes that connected the wood were burned, and the rafts scattered and became logs floating on the river, which were soon swept away by the surging river and washed downstream.

"It's already broken through Minggou's raft!" Wang Jinbao brandished his sword and shouted.

Before the words fell, a row of Qing army rafts in front of them hit something hard, several rafts were knocked apart, and the Qing soldiers on the rafts fell into the water like dumplings.

"There are underwater piles! Dead soldiers! Cut off the thief's underwater stake! Wang Jinbao yelled.

More than a dozen rafts of the Qing army, under the control of the non-commissioned officers on board, went down the river at a much slower speed than the current. The raft, whose speed had been tightly controlled, lightly hit the underwater stake and stopped moving. On the raft, a shirtless Qing soldier jumped into the river, dived underwater, and swung an axe to chop the underwater stakes.

The speed of chopping underwater is already slow, and the weather is cold, and these dead soldiers of the Qing army have to surface to change their breath after a few cuts. Fortunately, it was a foggy day, otherwise as long as these Qing soldiers surfaced to breathe, they would immediately be shot into hedgehogs by random arrows on the shore and beaten into a hornet's nest by muskets.

Downstream, the Rebel Sailors went upriver and launched a fierce attack on the Qing army's raft. The rafts and boats of the rebel army were full of soldiers and rushed straight to the raft formation of the Qing army. The raft of the righteous army collided with the raft of the Qing army, and the rows of smoke-emitting bottles of the national surname smashed onto the raft of the Qing army like hailstones, and explosions occurred one after another, and the broken porcelain pieces and the loaded iron beads flew sideways, and in the thunderous explosion, a large number of Qing soldiers fell into the cold and biting river water like dumplings.

The righteous soldiers who threw the surname bottle jumped on the rafts and boats of the Qing army, wielded swords and axes and slashed desperately, and constantly cut down the Qing soldiers in pools of blood. Some of the rebels stabbed into the river with spears, and the dead soldiers of the Qing army who were cutting dark stakes in the water were pierced through their bodies one by one by spears, and red blood rose from the river.

"Kill the thief!" Wang Jinbao took the Qing army and rushed up on a raft.

This Wang Jinbao is worthy of being a fierce general promoted by Hong Chengchou, he just jumped on the raft of the righteous army, and he cut down many people in a row. Wang Jinbao's sword swung in a cold light that was impermeable, and any righteous soldier who approached him could not walk for more than a round before he was cut down on the raft.

"Kill the dog!" Wang Jinbao roared loudly and personally commanded his soldiers to drive the raft, which overturned one of the rafts of the rebels.

The rebel soldiers on the raft fell into the water one after another, but Wang Jinbao still did not let them go, and ordered people to stab them with spears into the water, and stabbed to death many Ming soldiers who fell into the water on the spot.

"Kill the Tartars!" Li Laiheng personally led a team of personal soldiers, driving a raft, to kill Wang Jinbao's Qing army's vanguard.

Seeing a large number of rafts of the rebels going upstream, Wang Jinbao even inspired the fierce xing: "Brothers, follow me and kill the dog!" Kill the thief! ”

The distance between the two sides was close, Wang Jinbao saw a silver white light shining on a large raft more than ten steps ahead, he knew that it must be the general of the righteous army, so he took off the bow and arrow from his back, stretched out the bow and arrows, and aimed at the target. (To be continued.) )